Meat the future

REHOVOT, ISRAEL

Meat has one of the largest carbon footprints of any food. A diet that contains meat releases the equivalent of 4.7 to 7.2kg of CO2 every single day (BBC Science Focus, April 2020). As the global population continues to rise, there are serious concerns around whether the demand for meat can be sustained in the coming decades.

Could 3D-printed, synthetic meat be a viable alternative? Israeli start-up Redefine Meat thinks so. The company aims to reproduce not a generic meat-tasting product, but a steak with all the appearance, texture and flavour of whole muscle meat, using raw ingredients sourced from plants. Combined with food-printing technology using custom-made 3D printers, the ‘meat’ will have a 95 per cent smaller environmental impact than the real thing.

If Redefine Meat pulls this off on a commercial scale, we’ll be a step closer to Star Trek replicators becoming reality.